Forage production and growing goats’ response under silvopastoral systems based on Guazuma ulmifolia, Leucaena leucocephala and Crescentia cujete

• Main Authors: Gustavo Rodríguez Fernández, Belisario Roncallo Fandiño
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Corporación Colombiana de Investigación Agropecuaria (Corpoica) 2013-01-01
• Series: Ciencia y Tecnología Agropecuaria
• Subjects: goats; animal performance; weight gain; monoculture; silvopastoral systems
• Online Access: http://revista.corpoica.org.co/index.php/revista/article/view/345/418

Grass monoculture, besides being unnatural to goat’s natural eating habits, exhibits low forage production during the dry season, with negative impacts on animal productivity. This research aimed to determine the productive advantages of silvopastoral system arrangements in goat production. A completely randomized design with repeated measurements through time was used. Six treatments were evaluated: kikuyina grass monoculture (Bothriochloa pertusa) and guinea grass monoculture (Panicum maximum cv. Tanzania) as control groups; guacimo (Guazuma ulmifolia) based silvopastoral arrangement; calabash (Crescentia cujete) based silvopastoral arrangement; lead tree (Leucaena leucocephala) based silvopastoral arrangement; and a mixed based silvopastoralarrangement (guacimo, calabash and leucaena). The information was processed with analysis of variance. The results showed increased forage production in silvopastoral arrangements vs. Bothriochloa pertusa monoculture. The greater increase in height (p <0.05) at 9-14 months of age, was obtained with the leucaena silvopastoral arrangement. All silvopastoral arrangements showed forage yield advantages compared to B. pertusa. The higher dry matter production of guinea grass is highlighted. Overall weight gain of the growing goats was low; nevertheless, a differential response between treatments was observed. Silvopastoral arrangements had the highest (p <0.05) weight gain (22.5 to 33.6 g/animal per day) relative to the guinea grass monoculture (13.2 g/animal per day). The growing goats had higher percentages of estrus and pregnancy in the mixed system (66.7%) and those based on guacimo (66.7%) and on lead tree (55.6%).